Teenage generation in New Direction

Graham Spanier president of Pennsylvania State University made a good point in his paper. At first he was questioning the drive of America’s teenage generation and lack of voicing opinions on current issues and quoted "I marvel on the one hand at the silence of today's young people on major issues and on the other hand at the inadequate understanding of the issues that some students choose for protest." One thing Spanier pointed out was that our generation is more tuned into to television more and no more about what’s going on in Hollywood than our country. "After all, according to a Newsweek study last year, more Americans were able to name Jordin Sparks as the winner of the American Idol competition than could identify John Roberts as the U.S. chief justice." Spanier was right on with this observation because I am always on facebook and watching the latest television shows and I never really watch the news unless I have too. He then switched up his argument and started to praise this new generation the strong will to help people through voluntary work. There was a 16% increase in applications to the Peace Corps and applications are up 28% for teach in America. I know I did a lot of voluntary work in high school and I loved helping out the community to make it a better place. I do consider myself a genuine person when it comes to helping people in need. I was really pleased with reading this article and it clearly reflects our generation today and how we are headed into a new direction, maybe it’s because of the technology improvement or that’s just the focus on the world today with all the poverty and unfortunate people. Spanier quoted our generation perfectly “while we see fewer marches and angry fists pumping the air, many students are still making a difference, and that is something worth shouting about.”